Marcus Sieff, Baron Sieff of Brimpton

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Marcus Joseph Sieff, Baron Sieff of Brimpton Kt OBE FRCS (* 2. July 1913 in Didsbury , Manchester , † 23. February 2001 in London ) was a British businessman and politician , who from 1972 to 1984 CEO of the retail company Marks & Spencer and was a leading exponent of British Zionism and became a member of the House of Lords in 1980 when Life Peer under the Life Peerages Act 1958 . Sieff was the first son of a life peer, who was also raised to the nobility as a life peer .

Life

Family background and studies

Marcus Sieff was the grandson of two destitute immigrants from Poland : one, Ephraim Sieff, founded a company in Manchester that sorted and resold cotton waste, while the other, Michael Marks , with a borrowed capital of five pounds sterling as a peddler in the villages selling goods in the Leeds area . He later founded a market stall with the slogan “Don't ask the price, it's a penny”. Marks founded Marks & Spencer in 1894 as a chain of penny stores.

Both families were neighbors in Manchester and the second generation, Marcus Sieff's father Israel Sieff and his uncle Simon Marks , each married the sister of the other, so that the family-business connection of the Sieff family to Marks & Spencer was established after the company shares dated Successor to the original partner, Thomas Spencer , was bought in 1917.

After visiting the Manchester Grammar School and the traditional St Paul's School in London , he graduated in economics at Corpus Christi College of the University of Cambridge , which he with a Bachelor of Arts graduated. He then became an employee in one of the Marks & Spencer stores on Hammersmith Broadway in West London.

Second World War as well as commitment to Zionism and the State of Israel

In addition to his later entrepreneurial activities, Sieff became involved in Zionism at an early age, like his parents, and took part in a celebration in Manchester in 1917 as a four-year-old for the Balfour Declaration , named after the then Foreign Minister Arthur James Balfour , in which Great Britain committed itself in 1897 Zionism agreed to the aim of establishing a "national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine . The main speaker at the meeting was Chaim Weizmann , a friend of Marcus Sieff's parents and later Israel's first president . He himself first visited Palestine in 1929 as a schoolboy.

Before the Second World War , he joined the British Army Reserve on April 18, 1939 as a sub-lieutenant and was initially with a territorial unit of the Royal Engineers . He later took part in combat missions as a reconnaissance officer for enemy troop movements in the Africa campaign , the Middle East and Italy . After receiving notification that he was to be responsible for the expected stationing of troops in Istanbul , he went on a reconnaissance trip disguised as a tourist, but was soon expelled by the Turkish police.

On the eve of the second battle of El Alamein in October 1942, he issued an unauthorized order to his unit to bring troops and ammunition to the front more quickly. Since this unauthorized order contradicted his original order, he was threatened with investigative judicial proceedings , but this was terminated by a letter of thanks to his unit by the Commander in Chief of the British troops in the Africa campaign, General Bernard Montgomery . Most recently he was promoted to colonel and in 1944 was named Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

After the end of the war, he returned to Marks & Spencer in 1945. After the establishment of the State of Israel, however, in May 1948 he received a message from the first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion , in which he asked him for help in the impending conflict with Israel's neighboring Arab countries. After entering Israel, he became a transport advisor to the Ministry of Defense of Israel . During the war in Palestine at the time, he subsequently took part in important consultations with Ben-Gurion and brought his own war experience to bear for combat operations by the Israeli armed forces . His personal relationships with later leading Israeli politicians such as Golda Meir and Shimon Peres also originated from this time .

Promotion to CEO of Marks & Spencer

After retiring from the Israel Defense Ministry, he returned to Great Britain in 1951. He returned to Marks & Spencer and was appointed director to the company's board of directors in 1954. Initially he was responsible for the food department, which he expanded considerably, and later responsible for the company's operations and personnel. Despite his sometimes difficult relationship with his uncle Simon Marks, who was ennobled as 1st Baron Marks of Broughton, of Sunningdale in the Royal County of Berkshire in 1961 and remained the company's chairman until his death in 1964, it became clear that he was being built as chairman of the board should be.

The company's management principles learned from Marcus Sieff were essentially developed by Israel Sieff and Simon Marks in the 1930s. The first principle concerned quality control and the value of money, which established long-term cooperation with goods suppliers and careful control of their manufacturing processes. Also important was the satisfaction of the employees, which was achieved through benefits such as company restaurants and foot care. Managers were encouraged to minimize bureaucracy within the company and to stay in touch with day-to-day business through daily business tours.

Marcus Sieff belonged to the third generation of the family who worked in the company and reached the highest management positions at the end of the 1960s. After his father Israel Sieff, who was also ennobled in 1966 as Baron Sieff , of Brimpton in the Royal County of Berkshire, and in 1964 the successor to his brother-in-law Simon Marks, ended his activities as chairman of the board in 1967, Edward Joseph Sieff was initially another uncle chairman of the board, while he himself became a Joint Managing Director . Before that, he was Assistant Managing Director between 1965 and 1967 . In addition, he became a member of the British National Export Council (BNEC) in 1965 and chairman of its export committee for Israel.

In 1972, Marcus Sieff, who was knighted with a Knight Bachelor degree on January 1, 1971 for his services to foreign trade and from then on had the suffix "Sir", finally succeeded his uncle Edward Joseph Sieff as CEO of Marks & Spencer and held this position for twelve years long until 1984.

However, the period was marked by one of the greatest economic setbacks in Great Britain. He repeatedly emphasized the merits of the Marks & Spencer principle as a free company “with a human face” as well as the harmful effects of excessively high taxes and excessive government interference. At the same time, he urged other retailers to emulate his company policy of buying 90 percent of goods from British producers. While the commercial concept on the city's main shopping streets was adamantly strong and resilient to the recession in the 1970s and 1980s , internal problems also arose due to difficulties with overseas developments in France and Canada .

Mediator in the Middle East conflict

Even as CEO of Marks & Spencer, Sieff remained a staunch supporter of Israel and campaigned for peace with Israel's neighbors. However, he turned down the offer of Ambassador to Israel from then Prime Minister of the Labor Party , James Callaghan , in 1974 on the grounds that “no one would believe that he would put the interests of the United Kingdom first, even if he would do this ”('no one would believe that I would put the United Kingdom's interests first, even if I was doing so').

After the conclusion of the Camp David Agreement of September 17, 1978, he tried to support the peace process in the Middle East conflict by offering Egypt economic advice and had several talks with the President of Egypt Anwar as-Sadat . During the terms of office of Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzchak Shamir between 1977 and 1984, however, he also criticized Israel's lack of emphatic economic governance and its intransigent foreign policy. On the other hand, he supported the work of Shimon Peres as prime minister and foreign minister as well as his engagement in the Oslo peace process to resolve the conflict with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Member of the House of Lords and other honors

Sieff was raised to the nobility by a letters patent dated February 14, 1980 on the basis of the Life Peerages Act 1958 as a life peer with the title Baron Sieff of Brimpton , of Brimpton in the Royal County of Berkshire, and thus belonged to the House of Lords up to his death as a member. After his uncle Simon Marks and his father Israel Sieff, he was the third leader of Marks & Spencer to be ennobled as a peer, while his cousin Michael Marks inherited the title of 2nd Baron Marks of Broughton after the death of his father in 1964 and as hereditary peer also belonged to the House of Lords. Marcus Sieff was the first son of a life peer, who was also raised to the nobility as a life peer. Its official introduction ( Introduction ) took place on March 5, 1980 with the support of Katharine Elliot, Baroness Elliot of Harwood and Frank Byers, Baron Byers .

In 1982, he and other members of the Marks & Spencer board of directors came under public scrutiny after it became known that they had sold their homes to the company and then rented them on favorable terms. In 1983 he received an honorary doctorate from Babson College and an honorary doctorate in law (Hon. LL.D.) from the University of St Andrews for his longstanding service .

Sieff resigned as chairman of the board in 1984 and became honorary chairman of Marks & Spencer, while with Derek Rayner a chairman of the board who did not belong to the Marks or Sieff families was appointed for the first time. In 1984 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS).

He was also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Independent daily newspaper from 1986 to 1993 , Board member of Wicks plc and Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London. He was also a board member of Sock Shop from 1987 to 1989. Furthermore, in 1986 the University of Reading awarded him an honorary doctorate in literary studies (Hon. D.Litt.) And the University of Stirling another honorary doctorate. He also received an honorary degree in law from the University of Leicester .

family

Marcus Sieff was married four times. In 1937 he married his first wife, Rosalie Fromson, a dancer of the Dorchester Follies , from whom he was divorced in 1947 after the couple had been separated for five years due to military service. The marriage resulted in his only son, David Daniel Sieff, who was also a board member of Marks & Spencer between 1972 and 1997 and was promoted to Knight Bachelor in 1999.

He was only married between 1951 and 1953 with his second wife, Elsie Florence Gosen, who was the manager of a hairdressing chain in New York City .

In 1956 he married his third wife, Brenda Mary Beith, an actress and announcer for the BBC . From this divorced marriage in 1962, his daughter Amanda Jane Sieff emerged, who also worked for Marks & Spencer.

He last married Pauline Lily Spatz from Poland in 1963 and was married to her until her death in 1997.

Publications

  • Collequial Russian , 1943
  • Stability in the Middle East , 1955
  • A Joint Effort for a Common Purpose: How Marks & Spencer Co-operates with Its Suppliers , 1978
  • Don't ask the price. The Memoirs of the President of Marks & Spencer , autobiography, 1987
  • Marcus Sieff on Management: The Marks & Spencer Way , 1990

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34617, HMSO, London, April 18, 1939, p. 2591 ( PDF , accessed December 28, 2013, English).
  2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 45262, HMSO, London, December 31, 1970, p. 2 ( PDF , accessed December 28, 2013, English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 45325, HMSO, London, March 19, 1971, p. 2509 ( PDF , accessed December 28, 2013, English).
  4. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 48059, HMSO, London, January 7, 1980, p. 287 ( PDF , accessed December 28, 2013, English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 48103, HMSO, London, February 19, 1980, p. 2655 ( PDF , accessed December 28, 2013, English).
  6. ^ Entry in Hansard (March 5, 1980)
  7. ↑ Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online (RCS homepage)
  8. ↑ Obituary: Lady Sieff of Brimpton . In: The Independent, March 6, 1997
personal data
SURNAME Sieff, Marcus, Baron Sieff of Brimpton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sieff, Marcus Joseph, Baron Sieff of Brimpton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British manager, entrepreneur, Zionist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Didsbury , Manchester
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 2001
Place of death London